The owners of Sun Cinema in Bright, Anne and Michael Smith, were recently honoured in Melbourne on the final day of the Independent Cinemas Australia (ICA) annual conference and received the 'Mark Safarty CEO Award for Outstanding Service to Independent Cinema' for 2026.

The two-day event invited independent cinema owners from around the country to attend workshops on various business aspects, see all the upcoming movie trailers for the next year and conclude with a dinner held on the final night.

Mr Smith said the pair knew nothing about the award ahead of time.

"It was a complete surprise, but we really appreciate it," he said.

"We do lots of fundraisers and try to be a good 'hub' of the community and we also run a free cinema in East Timor.

"The award was presented to both Anne and I, that was really nice, because we're a team

"It was nice we were awarded equally and each given our own trophy."

Mr Smith said the award meant a lot and he and Anne were both really proud.

"We've been in the industry for 30 years now, so to get this recognition felt really special," he said.

"Recently in Bright we were so proud to be able to do the screenings of 'War Machine', because it was filmed in the community.

"Just recently for 'The Devil Wears Prada 2', we did a big gala opening night: it was so nice to see how much effort people went to, to dress up.

"It's great to see, when the right film comes along, the community can get really excited.

"We love we're able to do that for people: the cinema is still a cheap outing and we're going to make sure we'll always keep our prices reasonable.

"We'll just keep doing what we do: it's great to have people coming back to the movies and luckily there's lots of good things to see."

The Outstanding Service award was first presented in 2012 in memory of Mark Safarty, ICA’s inaugural CEO.